With a name like Rose PomPon you might expect a pretty, playful fragrance, and you’d be right. Annick Goutal Rose PomPon is a delightful rose scent that is made green and quirky with the addition of both raspberries and blackcurrants. Sometimes blackcurrants can smell like cat pee, but not here. Here their bitterness and greenery is brought out alongside creamy centifolia rose until I was reminded more of fresh tomato leaves than Ribena.

The flower petals add to the feminine feel of PomPon: rose and peony make it their own. I always think peony is the textbook note when “light and girly” is required and this is no exception.

The base is long lasting and has hints of clean white musk and faint woods. There is patchouli here, but it is only a whisper.

With the combination of raspberry, blackcurrant and the ubiquitous pink pepper (a berry, not a spice), this could be placed in the fruity floral category. However, the roses and peony are allowed to dominate, whilst the fruit makes both even greener and lighter, skipping any hints of fruit cocktail or overpowering sweetness. It’s not typical of the genre: it has a lot more to offer.

This is a rose for a modern girl. If I had to sum it up I would call it a rose fraiche. I wouldn’t turn a bottle down any time soon. The only thing about Rose PomPon that isn’t pretty, is the greed it brought out in me. There have been so many Must Buys lately that 2016 is shaping up to be a superb year for fragrance and a terrible year for my bank account.

Annick Goutal Matin D’Orage was a surprise Christmas gift from friend of the blog and friend of me, Lisa Wordbird. I haven’t thanked her yet so I will thank her through the medium of a blog post.

I was not expecting this, but Lisa knows me well and as she rightly guessed, I loved it immediately. It was such a lovely surprise in its pearlescent bottle with a gold lid and gold ribbon around its neck. My first impression, because I didn’t have my glasses on but my nose was awake, was that this was full of orange blossom. I read the label and thought it said “Orange”. I put my glasses on and read it again and saw it said “Matin D’Orage” which means stormy morning. As the scent settled I realised it wasn’t oranges but lemons I could smell, and also ginger. But most of all I could smell beautiful blooming (and sometimes tricky) gardenia. This has gardenia in spades. A close cousin to tuberose, but somehow lighter, and with a faint mushroomy undertow, gardenia is white, waxy and as fresh as a spring morning.

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Created in 2009 by Nose Isabelle Doyen, Matin D’Orage smells impossibly feminine, and the gardenia is so vivid its like having your nose right in the flower with its pure white petals. The ginger is just enough to give it a spicy fresh accent, and the Jasmine adds to the pretty factor whilst cranking up the richness. There is tea-like Champaca too, which enhances the greenery, and then a base note of sandalwood, with the faintest touch of celery, as there often can be with thick intense white flowers.

This is an unusual scent in that it starts pretty and then becomes a little more sober, and I must say that I prefer the top notes to the base notes. However, this whimsical bottle of scent delights me and I would have missed out on it completely if lovely Lisa hadn’t thought “Ah! Sam!”. I’m very glad she did.

Annick Goutal L’Ile au Thé is quite possibly one of the most refreshing scents I have ever tried, and I have tried A LOT. Inspired by a Southern Korean volcanic island, this green tea delight does not disappoint.

L’Ile au Thé opens with a blast of zingy mandarin: pith, pulp and zest. That ought to wake you faster than an Espresso. Then comes the green tea, almost at the same time, and this green refreshing note never leaves. (It is there in the top notes, there in the heart and there in the base). Just as you are easing into the day, a middle note of feathery light apricot blossom ( osmanthus) pops up with just a enough fruit to hint at a whisper of sweetness without dousing it in syrup. The final, and long lasting base note is one of tangy citrussy green tea softened with musk around the edges.

This is equally good on a man or a woman and has a real strength about it that will make everyone think you have just stepped out of the world’s most invigorating shower. L’Ile au Thé is the antidote to and nemesis of humidty. Beautiful!

I’m not generally a fan of Orange Blossom. There’s something honey like , or not orangey enough that puts me off. It has been used so often in perfume but I often turn my nose up if I smell it yet again. I love bitter, sour oranges in scent and I like white flowers, but I’m just not keen on Orange Blossom. However, here comes the Annick Goutal Les Colognes range to turn that on its head, and its all down to my old friend petit grain.

photo by fragrantica

Petit grain keeps greens green. It makes colognes more cologne-y and keeps hesperides light and green. It’s basically another name for orange leaf, but I don’t mind it the way I mind Orange Blossom since it’s all about the greenness, and not about the honey.

There are three notes to Annick Goutal Les Colognes Neroli: Orange Blossom, Neroli and Petit Grain. That’s it. But that’s all it needs. This is simple and light and doesn’t promise the earth and all that grows on it. However I will confess that even after some research I am still confused about whether Neroli and Orange Blossom are brother and sister or identical twins, there’s little to choose between them.

Longevity isn’t bad: I could still clearly smell this four hours later without having my wrist against my nose. It feels clean and revitalizing to wear, like putting on a cool white cotton shirt in the heat.

This is enormously uplifting when you first apply it: as refreshing as throwing open a window on a muggy day. It’s not widely available, but you can buy it if you know where to look i.e online. I would like to thank friend of the blog meganinstmaxime for very kindly donating me some sample that I would not otherwise have tried. Thank you Megan!

Created in 1981, Annick Goutal Eau D’Hadrienwas a shocker in so far as it is beautiful, pure and understated and was launched in the 1980s. I know, understated and 1981 doesn’t really go does it? But this beautiful unisex cologne helped pave the way for later creations such as Jo Malone Lime, Basil and Mandarin which was launched in 1999.

Eau D’Hadrien is all about the Lemons. If you don’t like Lemons, it’s not for you, but it is very much for me! The opening notes involve three types of Lemon, Grapefruit and a suggestion of Aldehyde notes in the drydown. It’s the kind of perfume you would reach for if you had overdone it, say with food or drink. Say, after Christmas? Boy, I could do with some now.

In every perfume collection there should be something light and comforting and natural in the cologne style and that for me, is this delightful scent.

The shop is just around the corner from the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, so a good excuse to kill two birds with one stone if ever there was one. Do any of us need an excuse to go to Paris?

(They have been selling Annick Goutal at great prices recently in TK Maxx but I’m ignoring that and holding out for a Paris trip).

Stockists: You can buy Annick Goutal Eau D’Hadrien from Amazon.UK and Escentual in the UK, and Amazon.com and Amazon.ca in the USA and Canada. If I was in France I would just go to Paris and buy it from the boutique.